Preventing Trauma Surgeons From Becoming Family Doctors

timore, I have seen this page hundreds of times. Sprinting through the basement hallways, I arrive as the paramedics burst through the doors of the trauma bay with a young man, calling out, “PEA arrest!” The patient is strapped to a backboard, unconscious and bloodied by three bullet holes. Our chief resident, a poised young woman in her early 30s, stares intently at our monitors and confirms the rhythm. I look at the paramed-ics and ask how long the patient has been “down”—about 8 minutes. “Go for it, ” I nod to the chief, and she makes the cut, beginning yet another emergency department tho-racotomy, the surgical equivalent of a Hail Mary pass in football. Several minutes later, at 11:51 p.m., I call out the time of death and explain to the two medical students presen